2016 North American International Auto Show Pictures

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Media coverage of the 2016 North American International Auto Show made it appear that the show was focused almost completely on autonomous driving and the connected "infotainment" consumerization of vehicles. I didn't find this remotely true. Certainly both aspects were present, but not particularly focused on. There is some hope for humanity because most of the presentations involving in car apps, smart dashboards and integration with smartphones were off in the corner and had small audiences. Most of that stuff was probably better demonstrated at CES.

The production version of the poorly named Bolt has landed. Seems decent. I don't recall one on the show floor so I was unable to check if the interior was typical GM cheap plastic. In the new Volt, that's one of the things GM fixed. The interior feels much more livable. Still, touch screens and lack of physical controls seem to be invading everywhere. How do we operate those in the dead of winter wearing gloves?

See the picture of the stroller and scooter at the bottom of the stairs? It takes a special type of asshole to just park their crap at the bottom of a busy stairwell and walk away. I was not the only one to notice this. If you are reading this, you suck. Please consider other people for once in your life.

The production version of the new Miata made a showing as one would expect. Looking into the engine bay, the engine mounts are exactly where one would want them to perform a Renesis or 13B swap. Coincidence? Interestingly, the steering rack electric assist motor is angled away from the engine, almost as if to clear a rotary metering oil pump.

I like electric motorcycles. The Victory Empulse looks to be a great bike and when no one was looking, I snuck past the barrier and gave it a try. Well balanced, comfortable to sit on. In the same sense, the Honda NM4 was a rather striking departure. Gasoline, but water cooled and full body cladding.

Toyota. Hydrogen. Really? Come on Toyota, other manufacturers, even Honda, have finally conceded that Hydrogen isn't going to go anywhere but a few niche markets. So why are you showing a hydrogen drivetrain?

Apologies for the quality of the images. My camera left my belt somewhere between a parking lot in Windsor and the Cobo center. An attempt to retrace my steps predictably resulted in zero success at finding the camera. So all pictures were taken with my BlackBerry Bold 9900, one of the best every productivity devices, but a terrible fixed focus camera.

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